| Linda
Rash Pilkington lived, for the first thirteen years of her life, in
a house that was over one hundred years old. The house was planted
on the rich dark soil of Iowa, and was reached by a long lane that
turned down from the main road.
On the farm was a large grove where she and her sisters and brothers played, and that was her favorite playground.
It was a
place where they hid, explored and imagined. Linda wrote her first
stories there. When she was alone in the quiet of the woods,
surrounded by immense trees, the ground covered with woodland
violets, and bluebells, it seemed like a magical place.
And when she wrote Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes
that’s how she imagined The Forest Savage, where Arthur Collins
and his friend, Elaine, crept silently through the darkness to watch
the wicked Witches of Witchenton Woods, as they circled their fires,
mixed their vile potions, and cast their magic spells.
Linda has written her entire life.
The first version of Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes was
written for a contest. She learned about the contest late, and had
just 72 days in which to write the book. Since that first
manuscript, Arthur Collins has had numerous changes and rewrites
before appearing here.
Linda has lived in Colorado for many
years with her husband Will Pilkington; her daughter lives in
California. Linda owns
and operates, City Castles LLC.
On the internet as: http://www.citycastles.com
The website features book club products, greeting cards and
Christmas cards in the City Castles online store at http://www.citycastles.com/cards.html
.
The pictures on the City Castles
greeting cards and Christmas cards also serve as the illustrations
for the Catherine’s Castle story, offered online at http:/citycastles.com/catherinescastle/index.php
. Arthur Collins and his
brother Lance, from the book, make their first appearance in the
Catherine’s Castle story. Catherine, Melinda, and Gwynie Emerson
from the online story are Arthur and Lance’s cousins, and are
important characters in the Arthur Collins book series.
The old picture of the little boy,
shown here, is of Linda’s Father at age five.
She wrote about Arthur Collins when he was age five, in
Chapter Five: The Dragon, in Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes; that picture is how she imagined Arthur’s face would have
looked when he was five.
 |
| The
rosebush behind Linda in the photo above was originally on the farm where
she lived as a girl.
In fact, her father found the wild yellow rosebush along a river when he was a boy and transplanted it to his parent's farm, which later became his farm. Her father would bring roses
from the bush to Linda's mother each wedding anniversary.
The rosebush was eventually transplanted to her brother's property, then years later, Linda and her sisters each received a part of that original bush. Linda's wild rosebush now thrives far away from Iowa, in dry Colorado. |
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